First 100 days: John Kasich says he saved Goodyear from leaving Ohio… but did he?

Keeping Ohio Companies in Ohio—American Greetings, Bob Evans, Diebold and Goodyear saving more than 5,500 jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue are saved.

And for once, Kasich is talking about a company that was seriously considering leaving Ohio and had multiple economic development offers to lure it away. And it’s also true that if it were not for the efforts of the Ohio Department of Development and local officials, Goodyear might have left. The problem for Kasich is that it wasn’t Mark Kvamme who brokered the deal to save Goodyear from moving:

The deal to keep Goodyear in Ohio wasn’t announced in 2011, but in 2007—a full year before John Kasich even formed his Recharge Ohio PAC that served as his unofficial exploratory committee until 2009.

The Kasich plan calls for a ”fast, flexible and responsive” operation. Akron knows what he means. In recent years, the [Ohio Department of Development] has displayed all three traits in helping the city retain two indispensable corporate citizens, Bridgestone and Goodyear.

That the project is off the ground is no small credit to the leadership demonstrated by Mayor Don Plusquellic, Russ Pry, the Summit County executive, and the port authority. Also crucial was the early and quick response of the state Department of Development under then-Gov. Ted Strickland and Lee Fisher, the lieutenant governor. (emphasis added.)

Ironically, it was the private sector which kept this development project stalled for the past three years. As the Akron Beacon Journalreported two days ago:

Industrial Realty Group, headed by Stu Lichter, will build the 639,000-square-foot building, which will then be leased to Goodyear.

Lichter owns most of Goodyear’s existing campus, including the Akron tire maker’s current headquarters off East Market Street and Goodyear Hall across the street.

IRG specializes in buying large, aging industrial sites and rehabilitating them for new use; he owns other significant properties in Ohio.

Goodyear, Lichter and public officials in late 2007 first announced the ambitious $900 million headquarters project that was to include a hotel nearby.

But Lichter was unable to get financing as the recession got under way soon after the announcement and the project was revamped and scaled back.

Instead of starting construction of the new headquarters as initially planned for 2008, Lichter purchased the existing Goodyear properties with publicly backed bonds and has been renovating and rehabilitating the structures.

As the ABJ noted, most of the infrastructure work, such as the construction of the campus’ private roadways, was already completed before Kasich was Governor.

This man has no shame. None. We’ve now found two things that Kasich claims his Administration achieved that Governor Strickland’s Administration was, in fact, totally responsible for achieving.

Rgtmwlly: It occurs to me that you keep using the same argument: that Strickland lost x number of jobs, and I guess there is the possibility that you are clinging to that argument because you are trying to hold on to a justification for your support. I did an extensive post on this a month or so ago – All of Ohio’s neighbors lost hundreds of thousands of jobs in the economic downturn. Red States. Blue States. All of them. There is no possibility – none – that Kasich (er, Blackwell??) could have prevented the state from losing hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Since that hit in 2007-8, Ohio has gained jobs at a faster rate than nearly any comparable state. You cannot blame Strickland for losing jobs in the downturn without crediting him with the remarkable performance during the recovery.

Now, during the first week of November, 2010 we did not have all of the data. The data we did have was not reported by major media outlets. And even if things were improving, unemployment was still much higher than before the recession hit. If you felt at the time that Ohio needed a change, I have a hard time being too hard on you. Strickland couldn’t campaign on the political non-starter of “Our economy hasn’t sucked nearly as much as the data would have predicted it would,” even if it was true (and it was true, and the wonks knew it, and that’s why we’re frustrated with the way the election went down).

The biggest problem is the one that you can’t seem to face: Things were not good under Strickland, but they were better than they should have been. Things will continue to improve under Kasich (as they will under 49 other governors during the expansion phase of the business cycle), but they will be worse than they should have been. Ohio, and you Rgtmwlly, made a mistake. There is no point in blaming you for what may have been an honest mistake, but it’s time to take some personal responsibility for your vote and work to mitigate the damage.

Fotogirlcb2002

We ask this question everyday at ODOT — thats all they do- and right to your face and never blink an eye….

Fotogirlcb2002

How in the world can we be saving millions in revenue when hes giving millions in tax cuts to these companies. I guess I dont understand Kasich math….
and yes he needs a Pinocchio nose– be off the page by now though
and my favorite question to ask — How do we even know if these companies are actually trying to re-locate? he lies they lie — and BE has shabby benefits — the pile gets higher………

Augustus

Well so much bad stuff has happened since Kasich took office, it’s hard to follow.

Anonymous

Name me a bad thing that has happened before Kasich took office that he’s getting the blame for?

RJjjj56

ALL YOU DEMOCRATS DO IS LIE LIE LIE , OUR ROADS WERE HORRIBLE BEFORE KASICH TOOK OFFICE , NOW I SEE ROADWORK ALL OVER THE PLACE, TWO NEW FACTORIES OPENED HERE AND TWO STARTED REHIRING